Images and video can be helpful to automate detection of objects. Some systems use optical recognition of objects shown in images or video to identify the objects appearing in the image data. This can involve differentiating different objects appearing in the images or video from each other based on how the objects appear in the images or video.
One problem with some known techniques for optical object recognition is the inability to accurately determine how far objects are from the camera that provided the images or video. A camera may provide two-dimensional (2D) images or video that can make it difficult for an automated system to accurately determine the size of objects in the images or video due to the lack of knowledge of how far the objects are from the camera. For example, the same object may appear larger when the object is closer to the camera than when the object is farther from the camera. This can interfere with the accurate automated identification and/or automated detection of how far the object is from the camera.
While additional cameras can be used to approximate a depth of field in the images or videos, this increases the cost and/or complexity of the system, and may not be realizable in systems where there is insufficient room or space for multiple cameras to be generally oriented in a common direction.
In some transportation systems, such as rail vehicle transportation systems, wayside equipment disposed alongside the routes traveled by the vehicles perform various functions (e.g., signaling, monitoring operations of the vehicles, etc.). The locations of the wayside equipment may need to be monitored in order to update databases used by the vehicles. The vehicles may rely on these databases accurately reflecting the locations of the wayside equipment to ensure that the vehicles continue to safely travel along the routes. Currently, the locations of the wayside equipment are determined or checked by operators onboard the vehicles manually recording the locations of the equipment as the vehicles move along the routes. This is a time- and cost-intensive way to determine, check, or verify that the locations of the wayside equipment is accurate.